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hey all... is there any other mushies that look like this one? found some growing near me and i know they grow wild around here.. it was a brownish color and definetly a tree-ear.. just wondering if there are any super close look-alikes, thanks!

The similar looking cup fungi (Peziza, Discina, ...) tend to have their fertile side on the top rather than the underside as Auricularias usually do. There are also several species of Auricularia, some of which are similar enough that there is uncertainty whether they are truly different species.

As long as you can accurately distinguish between Jelly fungi (Auricularia) and Cup fungi (Peziza, Discina, ...), I am not aware of any poisonings due to similar looking Jelly fungi. Many of the cup fungi produce some potentially lethal toxins, in particular methylhydrazine, and many of the cup fungi are *very* difficult to identify accurately to species.

If you have a microscope they are easy to distinguish. The Jelly fungi are basidiomycetes and the Cup fungi are ascomycetes.